“May you be consoled in the
secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day
as a sacred gift,
Woven around the heart of wonder.”
It’s the quiet miracles that often mean the most.
I spend way too much time looking for the big miracles, the things that will be flashy and brilliant… the things that will give me no doubt that God is here. The kind of miracles that will shake me out of the routine of my day and won’t let up til I notice them.
So, I often miss the small miracles, those little moments that pop up… those moments when God whispers instead of shouts.
The ones no one notices but me.
The ones meant for no one but me.
Yesterday, I gave a talk in our school prayer service. My job is running those prayer services, so in the past 11 years I have helped plan almost 200 of them. And I haven’t spoken in any.
But I had something I thought might resonate to share so I decided to go ahead and do it. And truth be told, I was so nervous. I re-considered my decision to talk over and over all weekend long.
But in the end, I did it. I got up and spoke about one of my “laying down the sword” moments. If you don’t know about St. Ignatius, there is a moment in his conversion where he lays down his sword in front of the statue of the Black Madonna at Montserrat. It’s his way of saying, “I’m letting go of this so I can be open to something better ahead.”
After the talk, I wasn’t really sure how it went. But the day was busy, and I kept on moving.
Then, out of the blue, hours after the service, a student I had not yet met stopped me and told me how much my talk meant to him. We had a conversation about what he was going through, and when it was over I kept on moving.
But I didn’t forget that moment…
Because that…
Right there…
That was the small miracle.
That was the quiet whisper from God that said, “I am here.”
May you, as John O’Donohue wrote, take time today to notice and celebrate your own quiet miracles… your own whispers from God.
